Donald Trump’s Illusive Climate Change Stance

President-elect Donald Trump has been busy choosing he he wants to help lead his administration. While it seemed he gave preference to public leaders who were most loyal to him throughout his campaign, he has other areas of extreme importance that will shape his time as president. One of the most important of these is who he would choose to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. And for climate change advocates, he chose their worst fear: Scott Pruit

Fruit publicly disavows climate change. For climate change activists, they are concerned he will undo everything Obama has done to help slash carbon emissions and move the country towards more clean, sustainable energy. While Attorney General in Oklahoma, Pruitt sued the EPA for power plant regulation. Democrats and progressives will most likely do everything they can to block his nomination in the senate. Bernie Sanders tweeted out that choosing Pruit was “sad and dangerous.”

But then, on the other hand, it seems like Trump is making steps forward to work with climate change activists. Al Gore, the poster child for this movement, met with Ivanka and Donald Trump in Trump Towers, and was enthusiastic about their meeting. There are other reports that Ivanka plans to make climate change her main issue while working close with the administration. And then today, Leonardo DiCaprio, who is very outspoken and involved with working on climate change, met with Donald Trump on how to create green jobs, and to continue reducing carbon emissions.

These two pieces of news directly contradict each other. While climate change activists say that the appointments are more important, Trump at the end of the day is president. If Trump so believed climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese, why is he meeting with these climate change leaders? And if he appointed a climate change denier to head his EPA, what can be concluded? There is increased pressure to take action on climate change, but many who work in fossil fuel industries are scared to lose their jobs. But how Trump decides to move forward will be key in the climate change agenda for the country during the next four years. And right now, there are some seriously mixed signals.